‘Downton Abbey’ season 6: As final season approaches, relatability is the key

Why has “Downton Abbey” been such an enormous success story all over the world, whereas so many other British series have disappeared and floundered? It is a worthy question, but one that there is not an easy answer to. We think there is a certain amount of idealism present here, but also an ounce or two of relatability. Even if many of these characters could be descried as “privileged,” creator / writer Julian Fellowes has always ensured that they are flawed, human, and make the same mistakes that anyone would regardless of income.

Given that the final season (premiering tonight on PBS) is the last opportunity for Americans presumably to see these characters (unless there is a movie or something more coming up down the road, it seems like these are themes that Fellowes and executive producer Gareth Neame especially wanted to hammer home. For more, take a look at what the latter had to say in a new Entertainment Weekly interview:

“I wanted the final season to be one that audiences could strongly identify with and connect to … I wanted people to realize that these characters are more like us than they are different than us, even though they’re 80, 90 years ago. Most of the things dramatically that occur to them are things that happen in our own lives.”

Will the show achieve this goal? We feel like that depends not only on who you are, but also the way in which you perceive the series. The goal is still certainly possible, but ultimately, trying to determine how viewers perceive an end product is an impossible task. Instead, all you can really hope for is that they have fun and enjoy a show.